250 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERK^AN BIRDS. 



up with Captain Baldwin, and he told me that he had discovered the nest 

 of my rara avis in a tall cottonwood doAvn the canon, and said if we 

 hastened we mig-ht procure the eggs before dark and secure the other parent. 



"The nest was built in a cottonwood tree in the same grove in which 

 we first found the birds. The nest had evidently been the birthplace of 

 many generations of these Hawks, for it measiu-ed 4 feet in depth by 2 feet 

 in width. It was lined with a layer of cottonwood leaves several inches 

 deep, was very slightly concave, and composed of large sticks, much decayed 

 below, showing that they had been in position for a number of years. The 

 nest was about 30 feet from the ground. The female parent remained too 

 shy to return to the nest until I began to climb the tree. At first I at- 

 tempted to ascend by means of some grapevines, which gave way; then I 

 managed to reach the upper part of the huge bole by swinging from a tall, 

 slender box-elder tree, and scrambled with much exertion to the lowest 

 branch. Meanwhile the Hawk had shown much uneasiness, fluttering in the 

 air and screaming lustily. As I approached her treasure her parental solici- 

 tude overcame her terror, and she sailed over the tree top. I saw the gun 

 at the captain's shoulder and feared he would miss; but he wisely held his 

 fire until the bird wheeled and rushed directly toward me, when a well- 

 directed shot dropped her just at his feet. A minute later I reached the 

 nest and discovered a single half-grown nestling, having the quill feathers 

 webbed terminally, and leaden gray down covering the greater part of the 

 body. It fought fiercely and evinced great pluck and ability to defend 

 itself The wounded parent was also savage,' and tried to reach its assailant. 

 After it was dispatched the captain proposed that we should attempt to find 

 my wounded Hawk; but the locality was too dangerous, so we abandoned 

 it with regret."^ 



On May 20, 1887, the doctor found a nest and two eggs of this species 

 on Beaver Creek, 6 miles northeast of Fort Verde, in central Arizona. The 

 eggs had been incubated when found, and are now in the American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York City. One of these is figured. 



Mr. D. B. Burrows writes me that he found a nest of this species in Starr 

 County, Texas, on April 25, 1891, containing a single egg. The female was 

 shot from the nest, and dissection showed that no more eggs would have been 

 laid. The nest, a newly constructed one, was placed in a dense willow grove 

 in the main forks of a tree of this species, about 30 feet above the ground, and 

 growing about 80 yards from the banks of the Rio Grande. It was about 15 

 inches wide by 8 inches deep and rather shallow. It was composed of dry 

 twigs and was well lined with green willow leaves. 



Mr. Burrows describes the egg as ovate in shape, the ground color as dull 

 white, with a faint greenish tinge, and as marked over the entire surface with 

 small and irregular blotches, varying from reddish brown to burnt umber, with 

 a few spots of purplish drab. The markings are heaviest near the larger end, 



'Auk, Vol. Ill, January, 1886, pp. 71-73. 



